Sources, foreign intelligence sources, «our sources», defectors, sources, sources, sources. Colin
Powell's terror talk to the United Nations Security Council yesterday sounded
like one of those government-inspired reports on the front page of The New
York Times – where it will most certainly be treated with due reverence in
this morning's edition. It was a bit like heating up old soup. Haven't we
heard most of this stuff before? Should one trust the man? General Powell,
I mean, not Saddam.
Certainly
we don't trust Saddam but Secretary of State Powell's presentation was a
mixture of awesomely funny recordings of Iraqi Republican Guard telephone
intercepts à la Samuel Beckett that just might have been some terrifying
little proof that Saddam really is conning the UN inspectors again, and some
ancient material on the Monster of Baghdad's all too well known record of
beastliness. I am still waiting to hear the Arabic for the State Department's
translation of «Okay Buddy» – «Consider it done, Sir» – this from the Republican
Guard's "Captain Ibrahim", for heaven's sake – and some dinky illustrations
of mobile bio-labs whose lorries and railway trucks were in such perfect
condition that they suggested the Pentagon didn't have much idea of the dilapidated
state of Saddam's army.
It
was when we went back to Halabja and human rights abuses and all Saddam's
old sins, as recorded by the discredited Unscom team, that we started eating
the old soup again. Jack Straw may have thought all this «the most powerful
and authoritative case» but when we were forced to listen to Iraq's officer
corps communicating by phone – «yeah», «yeah», «yeah?», «yeah...» – it was
impossible not to ask oneself if Colin Powell had really considered the effect
this would have on the outside world.
From time to time, the words «
Because
Colin Powell is supposed to be the good cop to the Bush-Rumsfeld bad cop
routine, one wanted to believe him. The Iraqi officer's telephoned order
to his subordinate – «remove 'nerve agents' whenever it comes up in the wireless
instructions» – looked as if the Americans had indeed spotted a nasty new
little line in Iraqi deception. But a dramatic picture of a pilotless Iraqi
aircraft capable of spraying poison chemicals turned out to be the imaginative
work of a Pentagon artist.
And
when General Powell started blathering on about «decades»' of contact between
Saddam and al-Qa'ida, things went wrong for the Secretary of State. Al-Qa'ida
only came into existence five years ago, since Bin Laden – «decades» ago
– was working against the Russians for the CIA, whose present day director
was sitting grave-faced behind General Powell. And Colin Powell's new version
of his President's State of the Union lie – that the «scientists» interviewed
by UN inspectors had been Iraqi intelligence agents in disguise – was singularly
unimpressive. The UN talked to scientists, the new version went, but they
were posing for the real nuclear and bio boys whom the UN wanted to talk
to. General Powell said America was sharing its information with the UN inspectors
but it was clear yesterday that much of what he had to say about alleged
new weapons development – the decontamination truck at the Taji chemical
munitions factory, for example, the «cleaning» of the Ibn al-Haythem ballistic
missile factory on 25 November – had not been given to the UN at the time.
Why wasn't this intelligence information given to the inspectors months ago?
Didn't General Powell's beloved UN resolution 1441 demand that all such intelligence
information should be given to Hans Blix and his lads immediately? Were the
Americans, perhaps, not being «pro-active» enough?
The worst moment came when General Powell started talking about anthrax and the 2001 anthrax attacks in
When the Secretary of State held up
There
was an almost macabre opening to the play when General Powell arrived at
the Security Council, cheek-kissing the delegates and winding his great arms
around them. Jack Straw fairly bounded up for his big American hug.
Indeed,
there were moments when you might have thought that the whole chamber, with
its toothy smiles and constant handshakes, contained a room full of men celebrating
peace rather than war. Alas, not so. These elegantly dressed statesmen were
constructing the framework that would allow them to kill quite a lot of people,
the monstrous Saddam perhaps, with his cronies, but a considerable number
of innocents as well. One recalled, of course, the same room four decades
ago when General Powell's predecessor Adlai Stevenson showed photos of the
ships carrying Soviet missiles to
Alas, today's pictures carried no such authority. And Colin Powell is no Adlai Stevenson.
World reaction
A «typical American show complete with stunts and special effects» was
«No
new information was provided, merely sound recordings that cannot be ascertained
as genuine», he said. «There are incorrect allegations, unnamed sources,
unknown sources».
Lt-Gen Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to Saddam Hussein, said the satellite pictures «proved nothing». On the allegation that
Jack
Straw, the Foreign Secretary, left, praised General Powell for his «powerful
and authoritative case». He said the presentation «laid bare the deceit practised
by the regime of Saddam Hussein, and worse, the very great danger it represents.
«Secretary Powell has set out deeply worrying reports about the presence in
«The recent discovery of the poison ricin in
«Saddam
is defying every one of us ... He questions our resolve and is gambling that
we will lose our nerve rather than enforce our will».
Inspections
should continue, Igor Ivanov, the Foreign Minister, above, said. More study
was needed of the evidence presented by General Powell, he added. Meanwhile,
inspections «must be continued».
The
Powell presentation and the findings of the weapons inspectors «have to be
examined carefully», said Joschka Fischer, the Foreign Minister. «We must
continue to seek a peaceful solution».
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Foreign Minister, left, said: «We've known this a long time. We've shared intelligence with the
Argument